|
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a
blood lead level equal to or greater than five micrograms per
deciliter of lead in blood is considered unsafe for children.
Researchers examined more than 5.2 million blood lead level test
results for infants and children under 6 years of age over a
six-year period ending in April 2015. They found 3.1 percent of boys
and 2.8 percent of girls had blood lead levels exceeding what the
CDC considers safe.
In six regions, more than 14 percent of kids had unsafe blood lead
levels: Syracuse, Buffalo and Poughkeepsie in New York; Oil City and
York in Pennsylvania and Cincinnati, Ohio.
“Many of these localities are old, industrial cities,” said Dr.
Harvey Kaufman, senior medical director at Quest Diagnostics in St.
Louis, Missouri, and an author of the study.
“There are many reasons why these localities could have the highest
percentage of children who test with elevated blood lead levels,
including more old housing stock, higher poverty rates and possibly
fewer resources for remediation of older housing,” Kaufman added by
email.
Even though lead was phased out of paint in the 1970s, many children
in communities with older housing stock are still at risk for lead
exposure because these buildings haven’t been inspected for lead or
because the metal hasn’t been removed where it’s found, said Dr.
Leonardo Trasande, a pediatrics researcher at New York University
School of Medicine who wasn’t involved in the study.
“Insofar as old homes have not been evaluated or remediated, levels
of lead in children’s blood are likely to be higher due to water
ingestion, dust inhalation and contact with soil,” Trasande said by
email.
The study also identified five states with the largest proportion of
tests indicating high blood lead levels: Minnesota (10.3 percent),
Pennsylvania (7.8 percent), Kentucky (7.1 percent), Ohio (7.0
percent) and Connecticut (6.7 percent). California and Florida had
the lowest rates, with 1.4 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively.
Over the course of the study, the proportion of children with high
blood lead levels nationwide dropped slightly, from about 3.7
percent to 2.6 percent.
Even blood lead levels lower than the CDC threshold for unsafe
exposure to the toxic chemical may put children at risk for reduced
intellectual and academic abilities and attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, according to the American Academy of
Pediatrics (AAP).
[to top of second column] |
The AAP this week issued new lead screening recommendations that
encourage doctors to step up testing efforts for children who live
in neighborhoods with many homes built before 1960, when lead paint
use was widespread. At the same time, the AAP called for strict
standards to limit how much lead is allowed in air, water, soil,
indoor dust and consumer products (http://bit.ly/28KV3rm).
“We must not treat children as ‘canaries in the coal mine’ where
they are exposed first and then tested to see if they have been
poisoned,” said Dr. Jennifer Lowry, chair of the AAP’s council on
environmental health.
“Parents, healthcare providers and policy makers must ensure that
children are protected before they live in a home with lead
hazards,” Lowry added by email. “That is hardest on parents where
they don’t know that lead hazards exist or don’t have the means to
do this.”
One limitation of the study is the potential for children to be
tested more frequently in communities where people are aware of the
risk for lead exposure, the authors note in the Journal of
Pediatrics. Some tests included in the study might also have been
done because doctors suspected lead poisoning or because parents
wanted to confirm initial screening results, the authors also point
out.
Even so, the findings point to the need for parents to be vigilant
about avoiding housing with lead paint and for pediatricians to
screen children at risk for exposure, Kaufman said.
“The health impacts of lead poisoning on IQ, behavior, and brain
development are irreversible, but lead exposure is preventable,”
Kaufman said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/28MUKMb Journal of Pediatrics, online June 11,
2016.
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
